AKG K309 and K311 entry-level earphones review

AKG is a brand owned by world-class Austrian manufacturer of audio electronics, Harman Kardon. This brand is known for decent-quality set of cans at a competitive price. We have a couple of entry-level on-ear earphones here from AKG: the K309 which retails for just Php499 and the AKG K311 which goes for Php799.

Let’s see if they carry the same premium feel and good sound quality other AKG audio devices are known for.

AKG K309

In terms of packaging, the AKG K309 is well… pretty basic which is unlikely of the brand who gives value to outward appearance people see from off the shelf. Anyway, other brands also share the same type of basic packaging so no harm here.

What I immediately noticed here is the color of our K309, AKG calls it juicy orange and it looks like something you should whip out on Halloween. There’s nothing special with what’s included here. Just the earphones and a pair of foam that’s too hard to slip into so I didn’t bother doing it anymore. Nothing special with the earphones as well, no gold tips, no pouch, not even a cinch to join the cables together when not in use. Well it’s not pricey anyway.

Admittedly, I’m not a fan of on-ear earphones because it just won’t fit my ear nicely. My ears would fatigue easily on the stock iPod earphones. With this AKG K309, the size is a tad bigger than that of the stock iPod’s and in just a couple of songs I would gladly rip these off my ears. Maybe you should try it out first if you want to get this earphones to see if it will be comfortable for you.

As for performance, I’m not hearing any improvement from the stock earphones my player came with. Sound quality is just, hmm… plain I guess. Clarity didn’t improve, the bass didn’t get any additional power, nothing to write about really.

If you’ve read some of my earphone reviews, you would know that I really dislike hearing what people around me are listening blaring out of their earphones especially when that person is sitting beside me. Well, the AKG K309 won’t contribute to eliminating that. Your music will bleed out for everyone to hear when you use this pair of buds.

AKG K311

With the basic packaging that the AKG K309 comes with, the same cannot be said with the K311. The AKG K311 comes in a nice box with a magnetic flap for you to view the earphones inside. Even if it’s just packaging, it says a lot for window shoppers out there and AKG made a good job on this one.

Inside though, everything’s as bare as the K309. You will only get the same-sized on-ear earphones and a couple of foam tips which again, is hard to slip on. Instead of the Halloween-orange, we have here a white opaque pair of earphones (color name is milk).

Performance-wise, the AKG K311 is clearly better than the AK K309 (and it should) although not by much. Yes, songs are much crisper and clearer now but I couldn’t get the full effect as opposed to using an in-ear type of earphones. You can however, hear the distinct sound of each instrument and voice in a song with clarity. If you’re the type who goes with bassy tunes, this one helps but not by much.

There’s also the issue of music blaring out of the cans for the world to hear.

A have a bad experience with this earphone K311. The rubber o-ring around the earphone gets off easily, loosing it while in my pocket. The wire coating have disintegrated into pieces. It just started to crack the spreads around until almost all of the wire were bare (contents of the wire colored copper wires).

There are only 2 good things I could say with this phone. First, even if it looked bare, dilapidated and useless it still works. Second, SQ is better than those buds that are given free with Samsung and Sony phones.